The popularity of synthetic audio applications continues to rise in the United States and around the world. For example, many consumer devices are now available that generate audio signals by synthesizing the audio signals using wavetables. The wavetables store digitized sounds that are used by the consumer devices to generate audio signals on demand. As particular examples, gaming systems and multimedia applications often synthesize audio signals, such as when mobile telephones synthesize ringtones.
Synthesizing audio signals may be preferred over simply storing complete digital audio signals for several reasons. For example, synthesizing audio signals may generally require less storage space and less bandwidth for transmission. Also, synthesizing audio signals generally makes it easier for users to edit the audio signals.
A problem with conventional synthetic audio applications is that it is often difficult and time consuming to generate the wavetables used to synthesize audio signals. For example, generating a wavetable typically involves identifying sound segments that can be stored in the wavetable. However, identifying the sound segments is typically a subjective process that requires prior experience in analyzing audio signals. As a result, it is often a complex and time consuming process to identify sound segments and generate wavetables.